


Aftermath

by Spannah339



Series: Order 66 Feels [4]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 07x12 spoilers, Angst, Gen, Order 66, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23999944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spannah339/pseuds/Spannah339
Summary: so, THAT EPISODE HUH??i'm not crying you're crying rex's crying we're all cryingalso I realize that timing is probably a bit off and obi wan wouldn't have made it back to coruscant that fast but shh its my emotional support fic
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Order 66 Feels [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727470
Comments: 6
Kudos: 70





	Aftermath

Don't think about it. 

The ruined cruiser scored into the ground, and Rex forced himself not to think. He refused to think about what he was doing. 

Helmets, faces, _brothers_. They were all slowly unearthed from the smouldering rubble. Soldiers. Soldiers who obeyed their last command to the end. 

Ridge, mangled and broken and clearly killed before the ship even exited hyperspace. 

Rocky, usually cheerful and excitable, always ready for a game of sabacc or a prank. 

CT-4789. A shiny, just off Kamino. Rex couldn't remember his name. 

Jesse. 

For a moment, Rex stopped. He knelt in the rubble, head bowed, fighting back more tears. 

Jesse. Jesse, his brother, one of the oldest. One of the last. Jesse who he had fought alongside for most of the war. Jesse who had been at his back for countless battles. Jesse who he had survived _Umbara_ with. 

Jesse, who had held a gun on him. Jesse, who had been ready and was going to kill him. Jesse, who hadn't even flinched as the ship came crashing towards the moon, who was ready to die to follow the order he had been forced to obey. 

A hand gently touched his shoulder and he looked up, suddenly not caring that his eyes were blurred and his cheeks wet. If his brothers didn't deserve a few tears he didn't know what did. 

Ahsoka knelt beside him, silently reached forward and closing Jesse’s eyes. His helmet had slipped off and was half-buried under the nearby wreckage leaving his face exposed. It was hard to believe that only a few moments before he had held a gun on Rex. It was hard to believe he was gone. 

They worked in silence. Neither of them spoke a word as they slowly gathered Rex’s brothers, slowly buried them. Ahsoka silently lifted the rubble Rex couldn’t move, her eyes closed as she channelled the Force. 

They worked in silence. Rex felt like he was in some kind of haze; like nothing was real. It had barely been an hour. Barely an hour since everything had been going right. It felt like a lifetime ago. 

Grave after grave. Brother after brother. Rex dug, Ahsoka laid them to rest, together they covered each brother with a layer of dirt. Then, slowly, Rex began to thrust stakes into each mound, silently laying each brother’s helmet onto his grave. He refused to let them be unmarked, refused to let them be a mass row of unnamed dead. They were men, they had names. 

They were his brothers. 

Jesse’s helmet was the last. Rex’s hand lingered for a long moment, his eyes painfully dry again. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and he wasn’t really sure who he was apologising to. His brothers? The Jedi? Ahsoka? Himself? 

Then he turned, unable to look at the row of helmets any longer. Unable to bear the thought of the bodies, still and motionless forever under the hard earth. 

Ahsoka stood for a lot longer. Her cloak flapped softly in the wind, a motionless figure, silent, still. Rex wondered what she felt. How many Jedi had died? Could she feel them? 

Her comlink was blinking as she finally turned away from the graves, finally made her way back to Rex. She looked down at it for a long moment, then back up at him. Rex noted that her lightsaber was gone. He didn’t question it. 

“It’s changed,” she said quietly, softly, as though speaking aloud would make the past few hours real. “It was calling us home, but now it’s a different message.” 

She pressed a button and a voice echoed from the comlink, a voice that made Rex’s heart leap. General Kenobi.

“He’s alive,” Ahsoka whispered, tears shimmering in her eyes. 

Rex tried not to think it selfish that his first thought was Cody. If General Kenobi had survived, did that mean Cody had been killed? 

“This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi,” the comlink said, and Rex realized it was a recording. “I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place.”

Ahsoka pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes shimmering with tears as she listened to the message. Rex didn’t feel anything. He couldn’t find it in himself to be surprised - the clones had been turned against their Jedi. Everything had changed. 

“This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi; trust in the Force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. Avoid Coruscant. Avoid detection. Be secret... but be strong. We will each be challenged; our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere and, in time, I believe a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you always."

The messaged finished with a flicker, and the tears began to fall down Ahsoka’s cheeks. She was silent, hugging herself, her shoulders shaking as she finally broke down, as everything that had happened finally sunk in. 

This time, Rex laid a hand on her shoulder. Ahsoka looked up at him and then, without warning, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him. After a moment’s surprise, Rex returned the embrace, holding onto her for all that he was worth. 

“They’re all gone, Rex,” she whispered, and Rex _knew_. 

He had lost his family, his brothers. Those who had survived would consider him a traitor, would shoot on sight. They were slaves - forced to do the bidding of some all-powerful mastermind who cared nothing for them. 

He had lost his brothers, and Ahsoka had lost her family. 

Even though she had left the order, they had still been there. Those she had grown up around, those she had fought alongside. Rex didn’t understand how the Force worked, but he knew she could feel them, could sense their lifeforce somehow. 

She must feel so empty. 

Rex understood how she felt. His whole life, he had known his brothers were there. He had known, no matter what, he had a family of millions. Those he hadn’t met and yet carried his face, those who would accept him without hesitation. 

And now, they would kill him without hesitation. 

The tears returned and this time they didn’t stop. 

They clung to each other, two soldiers amid the ruins of battle. Two survivors, in the wake of a disaster. 

Two friends, with nowhere else to go in the aftermath of a war that had taken everything from them. 

**Author's Note:**

> so, THAT EPISODE HUH??   
> i'm not crying you're crying rex's crying we're all crying 
> 
> also I realize that timing is probably a bit off and obi wan wouldn't have made it back to coruscant that fast but shh its my emotional support fic


End file.
